Late in March 2010, I made a visit to one of the communities in Kitui West Constituency in Eastern Part of Kenya. The mission being to find out the thinking of the local people on whether they would prefer Solar Energy for home use. We drive off from Nairobi at 10.00am with a few other colleagues. As we move in the beauty of the green environment, I am reminded of a few months earlier when the place was completely dry and how the people were starving and surviving on wild fruits and rodents for their daily meals.
After two and half hours drive, the tarmac road comes to an end and we enter a rough terrain. We drive for another 40 Kilometer in the interior. The villages of the greater Yatta Plateau are sparse and wide. I spot three men in their late 50's and stop to talk with them. They are very happy to engage with me. I tell them my mission in the village is to find out whether they would prefer using Kerosene or solar Lamps for their home use. One of them exclaims that Solar Lanterns are very expensive and out of reach. I ask how much he spends to buy kerosene and he tells me sometimes he uses money and sometimes he has to sell one of his animals in the homestead to get cash for school fees for his children and food for daily use.
Such is the life in the village where people live in absolute poverty. Talking of living on a dollar a day is a dream. They have never seen a dollar in their life and all they depend on is the old barter trader. When I explain to them about the economies of subsidizing solar lanterns and why it is important for them to consider changing dependency on Kerosene, they all node in excitement and we get into details of how it works. One of them is extremely excited and asks that we bring a sample so that he can use it to believe it.
The villagers believe that if they get hold of the life changing devises, they will stop their dependence on Kerosene and stop walking long distances of over 40 Kilometers per day to go and charge their mobile phones. They tell me almost all the homes will be willing to buy them if it makes economic sense.
We set off to visit a few schools and on our way our 4x4 car gets stuck in a sandy path in a dry river bed. It hasn't rained for a long time and as such the seasonal river has completely dried. The villagers come to finally rescue us and we pulled off after three hours of struggle. At the next stop we find the village chief and the school head teacher waiting for us to hear the kind of news we have brought them. They say they have never seen any Non Governmental Organizations in their communities and so they will be very supportive of the imitative that we are seeking to establish in the area. But they are wary, that we look so young and might not be genuine. Young people are not supposed to be concerned about development initiatives.
As we trail further through the village we see fresh mango trees, we stop by to quench our thirst as my colleagues pluck out the Sweet Mangoes. A thought crosses my mind on how the villagers can utilize the high mango yields. My interrogation further reveals that the season ends after five moth of high yet wasteful yields. The villagers have to content with the lack of preservation and processing units to make sure they make ultimate use of their harvests instead of wasting them due to lack of Markets. One of the Women Entrepreneurs tells me that they have only 2 busses that leave from the village to the nearest Kitui Town which is 100KM away. If you miss the bus then you have to wait for the next day. The bus is always generally full since there are many travelers. As such the villagers have no choice but to squeeze in any small space available on the bus. To even get their produce to the next Town that offers better opportunities is a dream.
A woman shares her experience on how the area has a huge infestation of deadly snakes. She shares a harrowing experience of how children can be bitten by a snake and just dies on the way to the nearest hospital that is over 50KM away. With lack of infrastructure and health facilities, one will die since help is a dream too far to be achieved. It is already too dark, and we have to drive back to Nairobi. I recollect my day and wonder how on earth we can be so divided yet we all are human beings created to make earth a better place to live in.
Through YES Kenya, we want to be part of the solution. We are extinguishing 1 million Kerosene Lamps from villages like Kitui. Through our model distribution network by the youth, we will create jobs, as we light up rural East Africa. The villages offer many opportunities. Eco Charcoal, Juice Extraction, Preservation and Processing, and many other investment ideas will help rural villagers create opportunities for sustainable livelihoods using locally available resources but integrating a business model. YES Kenya is a basic idea factory for various Value Chains for replication across the continent. We need your support in Reworking the World.
The Preparations for the Rework the World Summit are coming out very well. I look forward to meeting with innovators, thinkers, doers and financiers in taking the replications to the next level. Through YES Kenya, a multi-stakeholder network of young people and partners, we will be presenting a unique distribution model that investors and producers of innovative life changing products can use to have a market in the communities. After several intensive thinking sessions, we have developed a working model, piloted it and now it has a proven record that it is possible to use unemployed youth in communities, belonging to youth groups to create a distribution network across the country. This model is generic and can be used for any products. The aim is to make sure that we create opportunities for the thousands of youth members in the communities.
In reworking the world, this will be our contribution. We expect sustainable partnerships. The different components of the model include
Identification and enrolment of Youth groups
Screening and interviews with youth entrepreneurs
Development of Skills based training modules fitting various products for distribution
Identifying the markets and providing researched data.
Piloting of the projects with the replication models and Scaling up to wider geographic area.
We know that majority of the youth lack the start up capital to do business, we provide the skills and the social collateral and link up with Micro Finance Institutions willing to finance the project where the products need heavy investments.
Some of the products we are piloting currently are
1) Entrepreneurship 1010 - Develop a High end Youth Business Training Curriculum
YES Kenya network is working to develop a locally designed entrepreneurship training curriculum. The curriculum will help create markets and unleash entrepreneurship in the grass root areas of Kenya by helping young people to identify business opportunities, prepare their business plans and compete for the best ideas.
YES Kenya has finalized a public survey to identify needs on entrepreneurship development among youth that will aid in developing the curriculum. The project will help young people identify business opportunities, prepare their business plans and compete for the best ideas through training, incubation, coaching and scale up. The program will integrate financial linkages for small scale risk capital, start up funding and innovative business development services for youth entrepreneurs to start their businesses.
2) Young Solar Entrepreneurship Project
YES Kenya is currently carrying out a Young Solar Entrepreneurship Project that seeks to extinguish 1 million Kerosene Lamps in Communities in Kenya. The first pilot was launched in March of 2010 in Kitui West Constituency where two schools have benefited from the Large Scale Community Solar Panels Installations. Over 1000 community members will benefit from its entrepreneurship component. Over 30 Young and Women Entrepreneurs are also geared to set up distribution networks through the Energy Kiosks that will be established in the community. The second pilot will be established in Western and Nyanza Provinces with replication expected in all the 8 provinces.
Eco Charcoal Production
Eco Charcoal Production from dry agricultural biomass, this charcoal is generally cheaper than wood charcoal and does not produce Carbon Dioxide and it is very safe and clean. The Markets are amazingly huge since trees are very expensive and it is illegal to log down trees. We are thus contributing to environmental safety.
There are more Pilots that will be rolled out soon once we find financing for them. This include the following;
1.Renewable Energy
•Creating sustainable alternative energy sources for agro-based industries.
•Designing and installing small power plants for institutions.
•Maintaining renewable energy systems and selling and installing small home solar systems/panels.
•Manufacturing solar lanterns for fishing activities during the night and renewable energy based ICTs to enhance access to income generation opportunities.
•Installing and maintaining solar-powered community facilities in rural areas.
2.On-farm and off-farm
•Exploring agriculture extension services for bringing micro credit to help set up small enterprises, provide business development services.
•Working with rural banks (where they exist), micro credit institutions and cooperatives, and youth groups to set up agricultural credit schemes to help young people acquire livestock, equipment and other productive assets of their own.
•Developing community based entrepreneurial/enterprise development-based education programs for young women in rural areas through vocational training, integrating elements of micro-entrepreneurship in the curriculum
3.Water and Sanitation
•Developing rain water-harvesting methods for communities to secure supplies and manage their own systems.
•Building and maintaining low cost toilets in the rural areas and tackle the sanitation needs of the people in the villages.
•Building and maintaining hand pumps to provide water supply to rural communities.
•Developing effective on-farm water technologies.
4.Information Communication Technology
•Developing "Youth in Business Centers" to help young men and women explore credit options and financial management programs and assist in marketing, product development and access to a wide array of books, manuals, videos and other materials related to starting and maintaining a small business.
•Developing web-based services such as website development assistance, e-marketing, and distance learning and on-line business development programs.
•Supporting agriculture though ICT tools.
Our Focus at the Rework the World is to profile the work of YES Kenya and its potential to create millions of jobs for youth in communities in East Africa and thus contributing towards creating the next 2 billion jobs for the world's youth through the following itemized focus.
Designing a concrete youth social entrepreneurship replication model for support and implementation in East Africa that will benefit thousands of youth through entrepreneurship trainings and skills transfer.
We are targeting strategic linkages with networks which will lead to partnerships that will enhance YES Kenya's idea generator for piloting and replication
Rework the World offers an amazing opportunity for us to meet and exchange ideas, present concrete plans and create lasting partnerships that will help us create sustainable livelihoods for the youth.
We need your support and Help
…All good ideas are pipe-dreams if not backed by committed leadership and investment – we are seeking yours. We need your help to move the Youth Entrepreneurship Agenda to the next level to our shared passion for generating youth employment to the resources that can make it happen. We have identified promising sectors for employment generation; discovered quantifiable, innovative and practical solutions; and overseen the development of a national-wide youth network of over 8000members that provide the perfect vehicle for unleashing the talents and energies of youth to create sustainable social enterprises. With your active involvement we can make a world of difference in the lives of thousands of youth in un reached communities in Africa.
We welcome you to meet us, talk with us and work together to change the World.
More than 5,000 barrels of oil have poured into the Gulf of Mexico since a deep-water drilling rig leased to BP exploded, caught fire and sank last week. The Oil spills are estimated at a rate five times that suggested by initial estimates of a thousand barrels a day, based on underwater cameras that recorded the flow from leaks 5,000 feet (1,524 meters) below water.
Rear Adm. Mary E. Landry of the Coast Guard said a scientist from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration had concluded that oil is leaking at the rate of 5,000 barrels a day, from observations made in flights over the slick, studying the trajectory of the spill and other variables.
Wind patterns may push the spill into the coast of Louisiana. Part of the oil slick was only 16 miles offshore and closing in on the Mississippi River Delta, the marshlands at the southeastern tip of Louisiana where the river empties into the ocean.
In-Situ Burn: On Wednesday May 5th 2010 Cleanup crews began conducting an in-situ burn, a process that consists of corralling concentrated parts of the spill in a 500-foot-long fireproof boom, moving it to another location and burning it. Such burning also works only when oil is corralled to a certain thickness. Burns may not be effective for most of this spill, of which 97 percent is estimated to be an oil-water mixture. Until Wednesday 5th may 2010, the well had been estimated to be leaking 1,000 barrels, or 42,000 gallons, each day.
The response team has tried in vain to engage a device called a blowout preventer, a stack of hydraulically activated valves at the top of the well that is designed to seal off the well in the event of a sudden pressure release — a possible cause for the explosion on the rig.
The pressure of the oil coming from below might be so great that the valves cannot make an adequate seal. Or in the case of a shear ram, which is designed to cut through the drill pipe itself and seal it off, it might have encountered a tool joint, the thicker, threaded area where two lengths of drilling pipe are joined.
Assumptions of Continued Spillage
Friday 7th May 2010: Around 210,000 gallons of oil are pouring into the Gulf each day which is not close to the 11 million gallons of oil leaked into Alaska's Prince William Sound by the Exxon Valdez tanker 20 years ago. But if the leaks aren't repaired soon, the BP spill may overtake the Exxon Valdez tragedy in volume by the third week of June 2010.
The oil slick from the April 20 2010 explosion and blowout of the offshore oil rig Deepwater Horizon continues to affect the Louisiana coast near the mouth of the Mississippi River, and along the Chandelier Islands off the coast of Mississippi. Strong south to southeast winds blowing at 15 - 25 knots will continue through, which will push oil onto portions of the eastern Louisiana coast from the mouth of the Mississippi River northwards towards the Mississippi border.
However, the current trajectory forecasts now show the advance of the oil will slow over the next few days, despite the strong onshore winds.
Market Prices of the Oil Spillage
Shares in BP fell nearly 5% in the first week of June after the company warned that the cost of tackling the oil spill exceeds $6m (£4m) per day, and will keep rising as it intensifies its efforts to deal with the accident.
BP shares dropped to a low of 546p when trading in London began as City investors took their first opportunity to offload BP shares following the long weekend. This knocked more than £5bn off on Friday's 30th April 2010 market capitalization taking it to around £102.5bn. At the start of last week, the company was valued at £122bn.
Whilst difficult to accurately estimate, the cost to the MC252 owners of the efforts to contain the spill and secure the well is currently estimated to be more than $6m per day. This figure is rising as activity increases. It is too early to quantify other potential costs and liabilities associated with the incident.
Experts are warning that the rate at which the oil is pouring out from the mile-deep well could soon increase 10-fold, that one of the world's richest fisheries could be ruined for years, that Louisiana's vital wetlands could be destroyed, and that the slick could even work its way around the Florida peninsula to blacken its way up the American East Coast.
Cost of Clean Up
The leak is said to cost BP £4M a day - and may take 90 days to resolve - that's a cost of c. £360M. Revenue from this region's oil amount to $75Bn. On very rough figures the cost of this clean up around 0.7% of annual revenue compared to BP's profits for last year at $14BN.
The Gulf of Mexico has 3500 oil production platforms, producing 1 billion barrels of oil per year, or approximately $75 billion-worth at current prices.
The effect of the spill in Numbers from April 29th 2010
11 workers are missing and presumed dead following the BP rig explosion. (Source: Huffington Post) The explosion and sinking rig left 11 of the 126-member crew dead.
Leakage estimated at 5,000 barrels a day from the Deepwater Horizon rig -- five times faster than was originally estimated. (Source: New York Times)
April 30th 2010 - Spillage is costing BP $300 million to plug up the leaking oil spill, not including environmental clean-up costs. (Source: New York Times)
The Market Value Loss estimated at $25 billion in stock since last week's rig explosion. (Source: Huffington Post) on 29th April 2010.
16: Miles off the coast of Louisiana the oil slick has crept. (Source: New York Times) 29th April 2010.
By 30th April 2010 At least 30: Species of birds the Audubon Society says are potentially threatened by the oil spill. These include marsh birds, ocean-dwelling birds, and migratory songbirds. All reside in "Important Bird Areas," according to Audubon, designated because of their "essential habitat value."
25 million: Number of birds that traverse the Gulf Coast per day and which are potentially at risk from the oil spill. According to the LA Times Green space blog, "Late spring is the peak time for neo-tropical songbirds moving from the Yucatan Peninsula to make their first landfall in Louisiana," and "more than 70% of the country's waterfowl frequent the gulf's waters."(Source: LA Times Greenspace blog)
11 million: Number of gallons of oil leaked into Alaska's Prince William Sound in 1989 by the Exxon Valdez oil leak. It is widely considered the worst oil spill in U.S. history, although a number of larger spills have happened around the world, including the 2002 Prestige spill off Spain. (Source: CBS News) 29th April 2010.
400: Number of wildlife species threatened by the spill. Threatened species include sea life such as whales, tuna, and shrimp; dozens of species of birds; land animals such as the gray fox and white-tailed deer; and amphibians such as the alligator and the snapping turtle. (Source: New Orleans Times-Picayune) 30th April 2010
600 square miles: Latest reported size of the oil slick. In response to reports of the blooming size of the spill, Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal declared a state of emergency, anticipating that it would reach Louisiana's shores soon. (Source: CNN) 29th April 2010
Insurance Costs Reports from 29th April 2010
$1.5 billion: Amount in insurance claims experts believe the BP spill will cost insurers. (Source: Business Week) The growing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, caused by a leaking BP Plc well, may cost the insurance industry as much as $1.5 billion in claims, according to Transatlantic Holdings Inc.
Transatlantic, the reinsurer divested by American International Group Inc., said its own costs from the spill may be less than $15 million. Partner Re Ltd., the reinsurer that purchased Paris Re Holdings Ltd., faces claims of $60 million to $70 million.
Montpelier Re Holdings Ltd., a Bermuda-based reinsurer, may have costs tied to the explosion of as much as $20 million. Hannover Re, Germany's second-biggest reinsurer, estimated a net loss of about 40 million euros ($53 million) from the accident.
The insurer holds contracts for the rig that may trigger two payments of $10 million each. JPMorgan Chase & Co. had estimated the insurance-industry cost would be $1.6 billion, in a report dated April 23.
The Amoco Cadiz encountered stormy weather and ran aground off the coast of Brittany, France on March 16, 1978. Its entire cargo of 68.7 million gallons of oil spilled into the sea, polluting about 200 miles of Brittany's coastline.
Beginning in late January of the 1991 Gulf War, the Iraqi Army destroyed tankers, oil terminals, and oil wells in Kuwait, causing the deliberate release of an estimated 6-8 million barrels of oil.
On December 15, 1976, the Argo Merchant ran aground on Fishing Rip (Nantucket Shoals), 29 nautical miles southeast of Nantucket Island, Massachusetts in high winds and ten foot seas. Six days later, the vessel broke apart and spilled its entire cargo of 7.7 million gallons of No. 6 fuel oil.
On August 10, 1993, three ships collided in Tampa Bay, Florida: the barge Bouchard 155, the freighter Balsa 37, and the barge Ocean 255. The Bouchard 155 spilled an estimated 336,000 gallons of No. 6 fuel oil into Tampa Bay.
On March 6, 1990, the Cibro Savannah exploded and caught fire while departing the pier at the Citgo facility in Linden, New Jersey. About 127,000 gallons of oil remained unaccounted for after the incident. No one knows how much oil burned and how much spilled into the environment.
On November 1, 1979, the Burmah Agate collided with the freighter Mimosa southeast of Galveston Entrance in the Gulf of Mexico. The collision caused an explosion and a fire on the Burmah Agate that burned until January 8, 1980. An estimated 2.6 million gallons of oil were released into the environment, and another 7.8 million gallons were consumed by the fire.
On March 24, 1989, the Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef in Prince William Sound, Alaska. The tanker was traveling outside the normal shipping lanes in an attempt to avoid ice. It spilled 10.8 million gallons of oil (out of a total cargo of 53 million gallons) into the marine environment, and impacted more than 1,100 miles of non-continuous Alaskan coastline. State and Federal agencies continue to monitor the effects of this spill, which was the largest oil spill in U.S. history.
The 2-mile-deep exploratory well, Ixtoc I, blew out on June 3, 1979 in the Bay of Campeche off Ciudad del Carmen, Mexico. By the time the well was brought under control in March, 1980, an estimated 140 million gallons of oil had spilled into the bay. The Ixtoc I spill is currently #2 on the all-time list of largest oil spills of all time.
On September 16, 1990, the tank vessel Jupiter was offloading gasoline at a refinery on the Saginaw River near Bay City, Michigan, when a fire started on board and the vessel exploded.
The Megaborg released 5.1 million gallons of oil as the result of a lightering accident and subsequent fire. The incident occurred 60 nautical miles south-southeast of Galveston, Texas on June 8, 1990.
Friends--- The window of opportunity to participate in the referendum is closing very first this week. Are you Not sure why you should register to vote? You Don't think it's important? Registering to vote isn't something most people think about outside of election time. Now we are faced with a referendum, and the vote of the young Kenyans is as crucial as the future of Kenya.
If you don't register, you can't vote! – It's as simple as that. It will give you a right to vote for the kind of constitution you want in the referendum and your representative at the general election and you do not want to be on the blame side for non delivery of services if you do not participate in the elections.
It is your right and responsibility.
Across the world people have died fighting for the right to vote and be part of a democracy – By registering to vote you'll be showing that you think that right is important. In the UK, less than 100 years ago, people were killed during their struggles to get the vote for women. Until the end of Apartheid in South Africa in 1994 were Africans able to vote for the first time. Today, many people across the world are still denied the right to vote.
Because it's easier than you think! – It's as simple as walking to the registration point nearest to you and register to make a difference in the future of Kenya.
Make yourself proud by making sure ''umejiandikisha kama mpiga kura''.
When important decisions are being made in international processes, our African Giants are always asleep. When the vote is carried, they are the fisrt to complain that Africa was never consulted. We have to get rid of this sleeping giants of Africa and replace them with young dynamic capable leaders who will stay awake and debate issues and make important decisions on behalf of Africa.
Change is gonna come to Africa. Will you be part of it? ED
How come we were not consulted when we attended the summit?
This is why Africa thinks they are never consulted when
certain major decisions are made around the world!
